Tax-cut rap on AMRI

OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

The Supreme Court on Monday held that AMRI Hospitals had no right to deduct about Rs 1.6 crore as tax deducted at source (TDS) from the estimated Rs 10 crore compensation awarded to Kunal Saha for medical negligence that led to the death of his wife Anuradha.

ďHow can you deduct the income tax component? The compensation of the principal amount and interest was awarded by this court. So how can you deduct it?Ē a bench of justices C.K. Prasad and V. Gopala Gowda asked the lawyer representing the hospital.

Thereafter, the lawyer submitted a cheque for Rs 1.6 crore for Saha through his lawyer M.N. Krishnamani.

The apex court passed the order while dealing with a contempt application moved by Saha, accusing the hospital of not paying him the compensation amount fully.

When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, Krishnamani submitted that the hospital despite facing the contempt application had deducted Rs 1.6 crore as TDS.

He told the court that Saha was a taxpayer in the US and any such liability would arise in that country. The bench, however, refrained from going into the issue on whether the tax liability would apply in the US or India.